It was great to see an old hand from the original Starship Enterprise make an appearance in Next Generation. Only thing is, Captain Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) had been trapped in the transporter buffer on the USS Jenolen for the past seventy-five years, having saved himself from a catastrophe that doomed the freighter many decades ago. Unfortunately, the molecular matter of a fellow crew member had degraded beyond saving, and Scotty was the sole survivor of the Jenollen. I can understand how some viewers would have felt bad for the way Commander LaForge treated Scotty in the early going. I'm sorry, but my sentiment sides with Geordi on this one. He reacted harshly when Scotty intervened in the advanced technology of the Enterprise-D in a couple of instances in which the former captain could have caused some damage. I'm sure Scotty understood and was the reason why he backed off diplomatically when Geordi got upset. Fortunately, Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) words of advice to Geordi helped smooth the way for the situation that arose that required Scotty's help to resolve when the Enterprise got trapped in the Dyson Sphere they were trying to investigate. Split second timing (isn't that always the case?) allowed the Enterprise to escape from the Dyson Sphere as the revived Jenollen jammed a portal open, to be destroyed by the Enterprise in order to make it through. Scotty's experience and calm under pressure helped save the day, and as a reward, the crew offered him a shuttle to make his way into retirement, which is what he was trying to do in the first place seventy-five years earlier.
Review of Relics
